Through the first week of June, General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) was in an extended slump, down nearly 12% in 2017. Last Thursday, however, news trickled out that the company that built its reputation on light bulbs might be selling its lighting unit, and suddenly GE stock jumped 5% in two days.

Coincidence? Actually, yes.

As you probably know, General Electric’s jump had little to do with lighting and everything to do with its ousting of unpopular CEO Jeff Immelt and replacing him with GE Healthcare chief John Flannery.

Most of the gains in GE stock last week came in the hours after Flannery was unveiled. Although it has been largely overshadowed, the company’s decision to put its historic lighting division on the market could cause major ripples down the road.

Sale Could Spark GE Stock

An internal email from GE Lighting CEO Bill Lacey seemed to confirm the move last week. In it, Lacey had formal “discussions with buyers around a proposed sale” of its lighting unit had begun. That includes its residential LED business and its traditional lighting products business, upon which the company was founded in 1892. General Electric won’t abandon lighting altogether — its “Current” business, formed in 2015 and aimed at making commercial and industrial buildings more energy efficient, will remain untouched.

But GE’s evolution from being a lighting company to an industrial one is decades old at this point. Energy connections and lighting accounted for just $2.75 billion of the company’s $27.7 billion in total first-quarter sales, or roughly 10%.

And this slice of the General Electric pie is declining rapidly, down 35% from the $4.26 billion in revenues it produced a year ago. Of its seven businesses (aviation, power, renewable energy, oil and gas, healthcare and transportation being the other six), oil and gas (-9%) was the only other unit to see its sales decline last quarter.

Only renewable energy and transportation account for a lower percentage of GE’s sales, and those businesses grew revenues by 22% and 6%, respectively, in the first quarter. Profits in its energy and lighting segment also declined, down 10% from the first quarter a year ago, the second-biggest segment earnings drop-off outside its oil and gas segment (which was due mostly to lower oil and gas prices).

For a company that’s increasingly strapped for cash — a Deutsche Bank note speculated that GE might cut its dividend by as much as a third to save money — trimming the fat seems like a good idea. Given its decline, Lighting is the most obvious bit of fat to trim. If it can find a buyer willing to pay a hefty sum for its lighting business, it can boost its dwindling cash reserves while simultaneously cutting ties with a losing asset.

Sentimentality aside, cutting ties with the business upon which the now-industrial company was built is a no-brainer.

General Electric Could Use the Makeover

GE stock could use a makeover — something to make the company feel fresher and more forward-thinking to investors and less of a dinosaur. Wall Street’s indifference to the company is obvious by looking at the stock’s chart: it’s down 4.5% in the last year and has scarcely budged in the last 18 months.

At 15 times forward earnings, with 10% earnings growth expected this year, GE stock isn’t overly cheap either. It needs a spark.

The Immelt ousting should help for now. Long-term, selling its fading lighting business could help even more.

As of this writing, Chris Fraley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.